An Offer She Couldn't Refuse
by CrossesWithHonor
Summary: Did you ever wonder what would have happened if High Ridge had been just a hair more competent? This story is, as will become very obvious immediately, AU as of late in Ashes of Victory (and this story's opening scene is set shortly after the Cromarty assassination).
1. Chapter 1

**An Offer She Couldn't Refuse**

Did you ever wonder what would have happened if High Ridge had been just a hair more competent? This story is, as will become very obvious immediately, AU as of late in _Ashes of Victory _(and this story's opening scene is set shortly after the Cromarty assassination). This story will (mostly) cover the same time period _as War of Honor, Crown of Slaves, Shadow of Saganami_, and several short stories (most notably _Service of the Sword_).

Note: I probably won't get back to this for a while; I'm currently working mostly on "Bridge Maintenance". But I thought some of you might like what I had so far...

**1**

"You wished to speak with me?" Admiral Hemphill asked. Michael Janvier, Baron High Ridge, was hardly a personal friend. Nor even much of a political ally; it was certainly true that she was largely sympathetic to the Conservative Association's nominal goals, but the Party's conduct for the last few years had driven her farther and farther to the margins of it. Especially after the disagreeable way she'd been forced into the middle of it. And even though she'd largely concentrated on her naval duties, she was quite sure the Association's leader was well aware of her views. Nonetheless, turning down an invitation from the presumptive new Prime Minister would have been a bit impolitic for a peer of the realm. Someone like Cathy Montaigne might have done it anyway, but her fire was reserved for arguing weapons and tactics with White Haven and his allies – even if he was presently making wonderful use of the new toys her people had given him.

"Yes, I did." He paused, considering. "You are aware that after learning that it would not be possible to form an interim unity government, Her Majesty has asked me to form a government?"

Sonja nodded.

"The nature of the coalition government will require that I nominate a candidate for First Lord of the Admiralty. Your cousin would normally be the obvious choice, but I'm informed that many of our senior flag officers have less than good relations with Sir Edward. I would be inclined to disregard that concern in peacetime, but however well things seem to be going right now, we are still at war with the Peeps." He continued.

_Which meant that High Ridge might be slightly less of an idiot than she generally thought. Or more probably, he's just inclined to throw Edward to the wolves now that he's become inconvenient._

"You have another candidate in mind, then?" She asked. It wouldn't do to ask straight out what she suspected.

"I realize your relations with the Association have been… strained… of late, but, yes, I was intending to ask if you would consider it." He said, confirming her suspicions.

"If I accept, you will keep Descroix and New Kiev from interfering with the Navy?" She said. Demanding virtual _carte blanche_ in naval affairs was a high asking price. But she was going to need it if she intended to take the job.

"That seems acceptable." He said.

[break]

"I appreciate the offer, Sonja, but why me?" James Webster asked.

"Honestly, Jim?" The new First Lord of the Admiralty said. "For all High Ridge said that he'd give me a free hand, there wasn't much doubt I'd have to replace most of the senior people. With a little bit of luck, they'll agree to pretend their new jobs are just part of our long-established policy of rotating senior admirals between HQ and field command – and it's purely coincidental that those field commands are going to be a long way from the home system. And you did a very good job while working for my cousin, so it would ruffle a lot fewer feathers than trying to keep Caparelli on."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to regret agreeing to this?" He said.

[break]

"My analysts don't believe this is a sincere offer, just an attempt to buy time to figure out how to counter our new systems. And although they don't give St. Just very good odds on surviving the year without Pierre, there's no telling what kind of government will eventually emerge. I can't recommend accepting this truce, not without more on the table than a simple cease fire in place." Admiral Hemphill told the Prime Minister two days after the note had arrived.

"But you don't think accepting it would put us at any real risk?"

"In the short term – the next year or two – we have enough of an edge with the new carriers and pod super dreadnoughts that I don't think they could possibly match us as long as we complete all the hulls under construction and continue upgrading our wall of battle at a slower rate after that. But only in the short term, Michael. The Havenites have made a dangerous amount of progress in getting their economic house in order, and they've proven they can match what we have close enough to trade quantity for quality before. Even including the entire alliance, and everything we've captured from them, they're still a lot bigger than we are. And there isn't anything in BuWeaps' pipeline that is as decisive as the multi-drive missiles, pod laying wallers, or the new LACs and carriers." She was not about to tell the Prime Minister anything about Apollo beyond its nominal goals. And she would not until it was ready to be deployed.

**2**

"Sometimes, it would be nice if the High Ridge government were entirely composed of idiots, not just mostly." Tom Theisman told his president.

"What do you mean?" Eloise Pritchart asked, genuinely concerned.

"Sonja Hemphill is more of an R&amp;D type than a fleet commander, but she keeps refusing to let High Ridge do anything that would seriously weaken the Manties' Navy. And that is inconvenient, given what you're telling me about the state of our negotiations with them."

"Such as?"

"High Ridge asked her to reduce military spending, and suggested suspending new construction, which would have been nice, since they only had sixty SD(P)s completed and nearly a hundred under construction, as best we could tell, when High Ridge started working on a new naval budget. But she came back with a report showing the pod layers are less expensive to operate, that shutting down and restarting construction would be expensive and time-consuming if it had to be done, and that completing all in-progress construction would allow the navy to shut down the Grendelsbane satellite yard. So while they're not expanding their navy like Grayson still is, they are modernizing things up and down the line. They're retiring 3 old-style SDs for every 2 SD(P)s they put into service, and their real margin of superiority over us _increases_ every time they do that. At least, that's what's in the public budget.

"Admiral Hemphill maintains that given that we are still technically at war, R&amp;D can't be cut much, and has to remain classified. And the Centrists and Crown Loyalists aren't fighting them at all on that part of the budget, so it's still there and still 'black'. Which means if we start shooting at each other again, they're probably going to have more new toys to throw at us."

"Lovely."

[break]

"Thank you for coming, Your Grace." Hemphill said. Officially, Baroness Low Delhi was having a simple dinner with Duchess Harrington. The First Lord of the Admiralty's official requests for Admiral Harrington would, of course, have gone through channels – at the very least, Jim Webster as First Space Lord would be talking to the Duchess, instead of her.

"You're welcome. I haven't had many opportunities to get out lately, save for official functions." Honor said, not too subtly reminding Hemphill that almost all of her close friends had been reassigned off-planet.

"Nor have I. Though actually having time to socialize can be as much of a curse as a blessing." Hemphill said. "I was hoping we could talk."

"I'm listening."

"I wanted you to know that although Admiral Webster and I may have reassigned some people for what are mostly political reasons – though in a lot of cases, they really were long overdue to be rotated back into a field command, if not necessarily one quite so far from the home system – that I'm planning on relying on you for more than your duties at the Island. I may need a 'back channel' to Her Majesty or Protector Benjamin in the not too distant future, especially if they intend to drag out this truce without a peace treaty indefinitely. And I was hoping I could use you as a sounding board for a few ideas."

"I believe I can do that."

"You know we're replacing our wallers and battle cruisers with ships with the new automation systems as rapidly as possible. We can almost man three new SD(P)s with the crew from one old battle cruiser, after all. But right now I'm not very happy with the battle cruisers we're building."

"I can see why. MDMs put them in a bit of an awkward spot."

"Yes. So right now we're building the _Black Rose_ class, mostly. Essentially it's an upgraded _Reliant_-class, like your old _Nike_; the biggest change is with the Mark 14 extended-range missile as its main armament. But it would still run into serious difficulties against a CA towing a few pods. Then we have a pod battle cruiser proposal; the _Agamemnon_ proposal is a nearly two megaton ship, which gives space for formidable active defenses and enough pods to be useful, but it's big enough that the planners wonder if we're better off just building a waller if we're going that big, and it's still not really tough enough to stand against massed MDM fire. We're building a squadron to try the concept out, but I suspect they're a transitional type at best. "

"I take it there's a third idea."

"Have you heard anything about the Mark 16 project?" Officially, Honor was not on the need-to-know list, but Sonja wouldn't be surprised if the Graysons or her old friends from the weapons development board had briefed her.

"My understanding was that it was still under development. But yes, I can see how a dual-drive, cruiser-weight missile – if it can meet the size and performance targets – could help solve the problem."

"If everything works, we'll have new classes for everything below the wall based around it."

"You're not going to try and squeeze a missile that big into a destroyer."

"No, but if everything on the Mark 16 project works, I suspect destroyers will go the way of the frigate. And our 'light cruisers' will be bigger than your second _Fearless_."

"So what is the problem?"

"I sold the Government on keeping the building programs active to reduce manpower requirements by deploying newer, less manpower-intensive ships – especially capital ships, which does include battle cruisers. If we stop building _Black Roses_ because they're going to be obsolete, the cost savings I've been projecting won't happen, and if we don't, I'm building rather expensive second-tier warships."

"I think I'd hedge and build some of the _Agamemnon_ s for now, then. They ought to have some value in hit-and-run operations even after the rest of the galaxy catches up to us. And while I can't think the passive defenses on any pod BC are going to be great, you ought to be able to fit a lot of counter-missile tubes and point defense on something that big."

"That's how my thinking was going, but I'm glad you agree."

**3**

"With all due respect to Countess Fraser, her analysis of the situation on Erewhon is wrong. They're getting progressively angrier we haven't honored the Cromarty government's agreement to help them deal with the Congo situation. And as touchy as the Erwehonese are, they could easily do something rash and dangerous to us if their relationship with us gets out of hand." Hemphill told the rest of the cabinet.

"Such as?" High Ridge asked.

"The Foreign Office's analysts project that if Erewhon breaks with us they'll be forced to realign with League, but my people at ONI think there's a very good chance they'll end up allied with Haven instead. And in a position to help them go a long way to making up the tech advantages we have."

"You know I've been in favor of doing as much as we can about the Congo problem for quite some time." New Kiev said. _Translation: Cathy Montaigne is getting my MPs in the Commons riled up._

"I assume you have a proposal?" The Prime Minister asked.

"I do." Admiral Hemphill said.

[break]

"And why do you think I'd do anything to help you, Marissa?" The Countess of Tor asked. She was not fond, to say the least, of the leader of Manticore's Liberal Party.

"If this works, we will finally be doing something for all the genetic slaves on Congo – which is not a small concern to you. Or to me, of course, which was why I supported this proposal enthusiastically. But also, the government will sponsor a motion to restore your seat in the Lords." Marissa Turner, Countess of New Kiev, said.

_She's got me dead to rights. There's absolutely no way I can turn this down._

"I'll talk to him. I can't guarantee he'll listen." Cathy said.

"I don't think he can pass this up any more than you can. Some of your… other associates… might not want to be seen working with us, but I believe he's more practical than that." New Kiev said. "And without him, this will be a fool's errand."

[break]

Michelle Henke had received notice of her promotion a week ago, though she did not have a new assignment yet. It seemed likely she was going to be commanding a heavy cruiser squadron or a battle cruiser division, but sometimes BuPers worked in mysterious ways. She'd hated to give up _Eddie_, even with her heavy cruiser sitting in the yards for refit. And she was a little concerned someone had decided giving the queen's cousin a star was a good way to distract Her Majesty from her differences with what was laughably called Elizabeth's government. Still, Jim Webster had called her to Admiralty House for a reason, and she couldn't think of any reason why the First Space Lord would want to speak to her officially except to talk about her next job.

What she hadn't expected was for Michael Oversteegen to be there, and sporting a junior grade Captain's insignia at that. The last time Michelle had checked, _Commander_ Oversteegen had a brand new light cruiser. She took a few seconds to contemplate what that probably meant, and…

"I see you know your new flag captain, Commodore Henke." Admiral Webster said.

"I was under the impression that flag officers had some discretion about these things. Even us lowly types with only a single star." Henke said.

"True, but since we didn't have any _qualified_ junior captains for _Gauntlet_, we decided to promote Commander Oversteegen." And _Gauntlet_ was the lead ship of a new class. They weren't all that different from her old _Edward Saganami_, save for the new extended-range missiles, but they were a bit bigger for more reasons than just larger offensive tubes and ammunition bunkerage. If she was getting a full squadron of them, that was a rather nice assignment for her first squadron command.

"And what do you want us to do with these lovely new toys?" Michelle asked.

[break]

W. E. B. du Havel could hardly have thought of anyone less likely to send any kind of proposal to him than the unlikely hodgepodge that was Manticore's current government. Any government had certain blind spots, and the factions of the Manticoran aristocracy that had produced their Prime Minister – what was his name, High Bridge or something like that – were hardly likely to seek out help from a Manpower slave turned political science professor.

"New Kiev didn't say it straight out, but this – like most of the more rational things coming out of the government – has Sonja Hemphill's fingerprints all over it." Cathy Motaigne told him.

"If you say so. I'm afraid I never got around to studying the particulars in Manticore in any detail. No real history of an exploited underclass, mostly stable. If you didn't figure so prominently in interstellar trade, and your monarchy wasn't so prominently involved with anti-genetic slavery efforts, I wouldn't even have a thousand-meter view." Web replied.

"There's no way High Ridge or Descroix or New Kiev would think of something like this – no matter how enthusiastically New Kiev would support it in public if _someone else_ proposed it. Stefan Young would have apoplexy. No, Hemphill is the only one in the government that might think of something like this, have enough clout to be listened to, and find arguments that would fly with the more isolationist parts of the Conservative Association and the Progressives."

"Then I expect she knows that I won't be able to do this without the Ballroom's cooperation."

"She must have told them; New Kiev told me that's fine as long as you can keep it deniable."


	2. Chapter 2

For a lot of reasons, writing 'An Offer She Can't Refuse' has been considerably slower going than the first two 'Bridge' stories were (for the mildly curious, I've got a few thousand words of Bridge 3 written as I type this). I think the biggest one is that while 'Bridge' is mostly either after the main Honorverse canon timeline or in a completely different part of human space, 'Offer' completely overlaps some of Weber's stories. You'll note that the bulk of chapters 5 &amp; 6 concern events covered by the short story 'The Service of the Sword'. Except where directly contradicted by my text, you can assume events happened how Weber wrote them in the short story (in particular, the ground-side events on Refuge, up to a certain point). There are small direct quotes from "Service of the Sword" and _War of Honor_ in this part because I'm not vain enough to think I can improve on Weber's writing.

_**Part 2: 1918 PD** _

**4**

"So that's our proposal for the third-generation SD(P) class." Captain Karen Yevseyeva said, concluding her presentation. The design would carry nearly twice as many missile pods as an _Invictus_-class, and had a fair number of other advantages over the current SD(P)s as well. All but one person in the room wanted the paper study extended at least to detailed blueprints. Most wanted a few prototypes laid down as soon as possible. Yevseyeva had been director of the project, and she wanted them in series production as soon as possible.

"There's a lot to like about this proposal for the _San Martin_ class, but I think I'm going to send you back to the drawing board. It's probably my fault for not keeping you as informed about other projects as I should have, but you all are aware of at least the goals of the Apollo project?" Admiral Hemphill asked. "If its goals are realized, how does that affect SD(P) design? Especially if we consider that our potential adversaries will eventually develop similar capabilities. Even without that, the 'flat-pack' pods and the Mark-23 missile should increase the pod-carrying capacity of a _Medusa_ or an _Invictus_ substantially. So what I think we need is more thinking on how to defend against missiles and targeting at least as good as ours. I'll expect a new proposal in six months – one that we can start building when the new yard at Trevor's Star is ready to begin production of wallers."

[break]

Hamish Alexander was not particularly happy with his present assignment. Not because he thought it was unimportant – as long as there was no peace treaty with the Peeps and no active fighting anywhere else, it could be argued that it was the most important command in the Royal Manticoran Navy. Nor because it was unsuited to his skills – if his fleet was called upon to do anything other than loom ominously, he was clearly the best person to command it, and Jim Webster was unlikely to send someone out here based on anything other than the chance of war resuming at any time. It wasn't even because he was hundreds of light years from the two women he loved, especially since he had no intention of doing anything about the one of them that wasn't his wife. At least, that's what he told himself. But that his particular assignment was necessary at all, that was very frustrating.

Sonja apparently believed Mark Sarnow's forward deployment proposal at Hancock was much too timid. At least, that was his best estimate of why he was in the McGregor system with a more powerful fleet than he'd had in Buttercup – one that was quite capable of taking the Haven system, as far as he knew. And he'd supervised upgrades of McGregor's orbital infrastructure to support his fleet – with the full cooperation of McGrego's interim government. In fact, that support was the only reason why he wasn't stationed still closer to the Haven system; no system closer to the Republic's capital was willing to officially agree to let Manticore build a major fleet base.

He understood what Sonja was doing, in keeping the majority of wallers Grayson and Erewhon made available to the Alliance assigned here at their most forward base. He even approved, if High Ridge was determined to cut military spending despite the lack of a formal peace treaty. But if a pair of star nations that trusted each other even a hair less than the Protectorate of Grayson and the Star Kingdom of Manticore had the force distribution they did in this fleet, the nation contributing the majority of the ships of the wall would insist on command. Possibly even the Graysons would have, for anyone but him or Honor. As it was, the Protector was far more concerned with hostilities resuming than Prime Minister High Ridge, so he could hardly complain about being asked to contribute to hold the front line.

And keeping Erewhon's lone SD(P) squadron – and getting the sale of those ships to Erewhon approved had been tricky – this far forward made political changes that would require their withdrawal a dicey proposition. If war resumed, either McGregor would be attacked, or White Haven would lead an attack from it. Which meant Erewhon's ships could easily be involved in fighting after orders changing their disposition had been cut but before they had been received. A bit cynical, but if they wanted to solve the Congo problem with anything less than a few battle squadrons it was going to take time.

He was less sure about what Sonja was doing to his own force mix. The LAC carriers had certainly proved themselves in Buttercup, but reducing his conventional screen and sending forward additional carriers with an untested new LAC design seemed a bit risky. The numbers said a LAC could provide about 80% of the screening value of a destroyer at far lower cost and far lower personnel risk, though, and neither Honor nor the Graysons thought it was crazy. So he'd have to make it work. At least he still had Alice Truman out here with him to figure it out. There'd been some pressure to pull Truman's brevet promotion to Vice-Admiral from Janacek and his people, but Sonja had squashed it.

Of course, if ONI's latest reports were accurate – and Admiral Jason Kral had been one of Pat Givens' top deputies before taking over Givens' job himself, so as much as he'd like to be skeptical of the nephew of a Liberal MP, he had little reason to be – then Haven was technically capable of building 'good enough' versions of a lot of the hardware that had proved so decisive in Buttercup. And if Haven did build LACs and carriers of their own, then this new 'dogfighting' LAC of BuShips' could turn out to be very useful.

[break]

Even knowing the reasons for it, in a lot of ways Thomas Caparelli was happy to have a field command again. Worrying about a single fleet – neither Sonja Hemphill nor Jim Webster were inclined to play word games and call anything with more than three squadrons of the wall anything less than that – was far less stressful than managing a shooting war for the entire Navy and several allied navies as well.

He'd taken a long-overdue extended leave shortly after the cease-fire agreement and used it taking a vacation with his family a hundred light-years from any terminus of the Manticoran wormhole junction. And officially, his new job when he got back was simply part of the regular rotation between staff and field positions that had always been policy for senior flag officers in the RMN – a policy that had grown teeth once a majority of those officers were prolong recipients. But for all that, he knew he'd been assigned to Sidemore Station not just because Jim Webster and Sonja Hemphill were worried about what the Andies were up to, but because it was convenient to have him away from Landing.

Which didn't make whatever the Andies were up to any less of a problem. There were far too many hints that they were up to something.

[break]

Arnold Giancola was not a happy man. He wasn't quite sure who to blame the most for his unhappiness – Eloise Pritchart, Thomas Theisman, Michael Janvier, or Sonja Hemphill. Pritchart was President, and Giancola was not, but he could live with that. He had fully expected to be able to use his position as Secretary of State to position himself to win the next election when Pritchart had spent her term dealing with real problems rather than just being the 'hero' who had restored the Republic. Theisman's rather firm public opinions made it clear Giancola had no choice _but_ to wait for the next election. Manticore's Prime Minister was intent on preventing an actual treaty which would no doubt be a signature accomplishment for a man in Giancola's position. And their First Lord of the Admiralty seemed intent on not providing any actual military weakness on the Star Kingdom's part. He was sure High Ridge and Descroix and New Kiev would back down from anything remotely resembling an even fight, but Hemphill seemed to have convinced them that there were limits to how much military spending could be safely cut, which meant he found himself agreeing with Thomas Theisman's insistence that the new ships at Bolthole needed to be kept secret. And that in turn meant arranging a crisis that he could resolve was going to be more difficult, and possibly riskier. Not that he intended to stop. The first step would be placing a call to the Andermani Ambassador.

**5**

Midshipwoman Abigail Hearns was, a few months into her middy cruise, in the rather difficult position of determining that she had almost certainly misjudged _Gauntlet_'s captain. High Admiral Matthews had told her of his suspicions of a close relative of Manticore's Prime Minister who earned a brand-new heavy cruiser command as a mere Captain (junior grade) – a very junior one at that. And given his appearance – he could easily have passed for a younger, fitter version of Baron High Ridge – and the accent affected by a certain strata of Manticore's aristocracy, she'd simply assumed Matthews' suspicions were correct at first. So she'd prepared to spend the next few months under the command of someone likely promoted far beyond his ability due to his family connections, and who probably had all sorts of disturbing and inaccurate notions of what a Grayson midshipwoman should be like.

But she had not been able to hold on to that belief for long. Maybe if _Gauntlet_ had not been Commodore Henke's flagship, she would have held out longer. But it was obvious that Steadholder Harrington's best friend liked and trusted Captain Oversteegen, and had a high opinion of his abilities as well. At least, the absurdly difficult tactical exercises the Commodore kept throwing at the Captain – and he found some way to beat as often as not – suggested that.

[break]

"This is more difficult than I'd thought." Commodore Henke told her flag captain over dinner.

"Surely the Countess is not suggestin' she's been anything less than stellar in commanding this squadron to date." Captain Oversteegen replied.

"No, it's not that. The difficult thing is avoiding getting too involved with what should be your job here on _Gauntlet_. Especially since I've split the squadron up into two-ship divisions so we've only got a pair of cruisers here. And the other three divisions are managing just fine with the senior captain of the two in charge."

"You did mange t' leave the most delicate assignment for us. And I can hardly disagree with the approach you intend."

"Since it was mostly your idea."

Oversteegen declined to argue the point. She was, after all, correct.

[break]

It was not uncommon in the armed forces of the Solarian League for entire units, or just their command staff, to 'take leave' and 'volunteer' to serve in what was nominally a much smaller power's armed force. Usually a 'revolutionary' group of one sort or another, whose triumph would benefit someone who could influence the League. On the other hand, it was all but unheard of for Royal Manticoran Marines to be involved in something like that. Of course, the odds of the League supporting the group Major Ramesh Avninder and his officers and NCOs were training would have been… poor. Captain Rozsack and the local SLN detachment had to know what Avinder was doing on Smoking Frog, but they wouldn't get involved directly.

Officially, he didn't know anything about the background of the soldiers he was training. And so it was purely a coincidence that they were with very few exceptions expert pistol shots, quite good with small group urban fighting tactics, and completely unfamiliar with heavy weapons and large group tactics. Unofficially, someone familiar with Manpower's genetic slaves would have easily recognized the overwhelming majority of his trainees' ancestry. And only a fool – which Major Avninder very much was not – would have guessed they gained their skills from anywhere other than where they actually did.

And pretending that the group's commander was someone other than the infamous Jeremy X… well, they could do that back in Landing, but not here. Avninder wasn't sure he approved of the Ballroom, grandson of an ex-slave or not, but he did approve of this mission. Even if setting it up was going to be difficult.

[break]

Captain Oversteegen watched _Gauntlet_'s sister ship disappear immediately after exiting hyper. A good system sensor array, or even good shipboard sensors with alert crews, would probably notice that the hyper footprint had been too large for one heavy cruiser. And most stations would be shocked by what one of Manticore's Ghost Rider recon drones could pick up. But pirates were notoriously unobservant, and Refuge was very poor. Neither he nor Commodore Henke had any real inclination to hide anything from the people of Refuge. If something was hiding in this system, though, which seemed quite possible, having _Vambrace_ hidden away in full stealth would be very useful. And Commodore Henke believed that someone that could destroy an Erewhonese destroyer just might think they could get away with attacking a Manticoran heavy cruiser. There was almost no chance, though, that any pirate would think they could handle two.

**6**

Midshipwoman Hearns and her party had been dropped off without incident. Abigail had, in fact, protested the assignment rather less than Oversteegen had expected. But if he could manage 'nonthreatening' with a _Gauntlet_-class heavy cruiser, he certainly intended to. Or at least had until just then.

"Sir, it's the Exec," she told him. "We've got an unidentified hyper footprint at roughly two hundred and eighty-eight million kilometers. Looks like it might be a pair of them."

"Do we, indeed?" Oversteegen said in a thoughtful voice. "Now, what do you think someone might be doin' in a system like Tiberian?"

"Well, Sir, unless they're as noble, virtuous, and aboveboard as we are, then I suppose it's possible they might be nasty old pirates."

"The same thought had occurred t' me," Oversteegen said, and then his voice went crisper. "Send the crew t' Action Stations, Linda. I'm on my way."

[break]

"Message from _Vambrace_, sir." Henke's flag communications officer said.

"They were supposed to keep dark. We can handle a pair of cruisers even if they're Solarian-built." Commodore Henke said. "But I've never known Captain Gladu to be rash." Audrey Gladu was nearly as closely tied to New Kiev's family as Oversteegen was to High Ridge's. But if the officers that earned plum commands in Sonja Hemphill's Navy tended to be well-connected, they also tended to be very good. And as near as Michelle could tell – and Gladu had been under her command for months now – _Vambrace_'s captain was no exception to that rule.

"She's relaying through a Hermes buoy."

"Put here on."

"We don't have two bogeys, Commodore. We've got four." Galdu said. "Permission to thin down the numbers a little, ma'am?"

"I know what you like, Audrey." The Gladu family controlled more of the Dempsey cartel than any family save its namesakes. And that cartel was more invested in the Silesian trade than anyone on Manticore save Hauptman. Even if Audrey had no experience in Silesia, she would have had a short way with pirates. As it was… there were few things that brought that woman more pleasure than blowing pirates out of space. It was, Henke thought, one of her few endearing qualities. Oversteegen, she knew, had some very fundamental differences of opinion from his family despite sharing a basically conservative aristocratic view of the universe. Gladu, though … when she found it impossible to reconcile the Liberal party line with the universe as it was, she thought that meant there was something wrong with the universe. Which was why although she had a _Gauntlet_-class command, and had even made the List during the war, she would not hold flag rank until seniority forced the issue, and would find no independent multi-ship commands when she did. That, though, was some future director of BuPers' problem. For now, Michelle had one very capable starship commander.

[break]

"_Two_ Manties?" Ringstorff said. The second had appeared almost out of nowhere. "I didn't think this could get worse." The one-time Andermani said.

"They've still got four nearly first-line Solly cruisers. Even the four yahoos should be able to manage two to one odds against other heavy cruisers." Lithgow replied. The Solarian sensor officer didn't really understand how good Manty hardware was. Hopefully what was about to happen to their Silesian associates would teach the man a lesson. He didn't have much hope for it. He imagined Lithgow would continue to cherish illusions that things would have been quite different with Solarian crews in the four _Gladiators_ rather than Silesians. And Ringstorff was quite prepared to admit they would have done far better than the yahoos were about to. It just wouldn't have been good enough.

"Those things are either _Edward Saganamis_ or _Gauntlets_. First-line Manticoran hardware. The commodore identified herself as Michelle Henke. Who is Queen Elizabeth's first cousin, so I can't imagine the captains under her command are anything but the best. And was one of their better cruiser commanders in the war with Haven. No, we'd best be making ourselves scarce. They might have been able to take one _Saganami_, though we'd certainly have lost one or two of the yahoos in the process. There's no way they'd take two."

And Ringstorff was in command, so that was that.

[break]

Some people in the RMN found it odd that Audrey Gladu had taken Esko Peltosaari under her wing from the day he'd shown up as assistant tactical officer on her first destroyer. Gryphon highlanders like Peltosaari might not find liberal Landing aristocrats like Gladu quite as loathsome as conservative Gryphon aristocrats, but that hardly meant they had a good opinion of them. And he was as rock-solid of a Crown Loyalist as the overwhelming majority of his fellow highlanders.

Nonetheless, they worked very well together; this was his third assignment under her command. He'd also been her tactical officer for two years on a light cruiser. But Gladu didn't intend to keep him as her exec that long. In fact, she'd pushed to have him sent to the Crusher after recovering from injuries suffered late in the war. The Admiralty, though, wanted him to have stint as exec on something bigger than a light cruiser first. And it was the assignment _he'd_ requested.

Which meant that he called the double broadside _Vambrace_ opened battle with. It wasn't quite the first time the Mark 14 extended-range missile had been fired in anger, _Gauntlet_ having done the honors moments earlier. It was the first time their maximum powered range had been used, though. And the effect was devastating.

[break]

Only minutes later, two of the pirate vessels had surrendered to the pair of Manticoran cruisers, despite the risks. And the other two were broken lumps of wreckage.

Abigail Hearns didn't want to think about what would have happened if _Gauntlet_'s consort had not been in the system. She'd lost people in a ground engagement no self-respecting Naval officer wanted to be involved in. But she'd known her only chance was for the warships to return, so she'd played for time. Fortunately she hadn't needed to buy as much as she'd feared.

[break]

…. "No," Descroix said. "I'm suggesting that we go further than that."

"Further?" Lady Hemphill asked suspiciously.

"Precisely." She shrugged. "We've just agreed that our mere presence in the region is going to create problems for us where the Sollies are concerned. So I don't see any reason to be particularly careful of their exquisite sensibilities. But what I do see is an entire cluster of star systems, most of whom would much prefer to find themselves in our custody rather than ending up as Solly protectorates under the compassionate management of the OFS. What I see here is an opportunity for us to take the lead in exploring the possibility of offering the Talbott Cluster's star systems some sort of protectorate status – or even actual membership in the Star Kingdom."

"I can't recommend the last." Sonja asserted. "It's true that anything we do in the region is likely to create some problems, but there's no reason to be more inflammatory than we have to, particularly since we've declined to reach a formal peace settlement with Haven. I've forwarded you copies of Admiral Kral's reports about the Andermani, and Admiral Caparelli's as well. And I can't say that I'm happy with a proposal that would leave the 'old' Star Kingdom badly outnumbered in the long run by people with no experience with our system. Besides, it looks like there may be a few systems in the Cluster that are good candidates for a 'special relationship' with us like Grayson or Sidemore, and between that and a few quiet words in the right places we should get most of the benefits of annexing the Cluster with few of the risks."


	3. Chapter 3

I was hopeful that after getting past the battle of Tiberian, I could make progress more quickly with the rest of the story, but it hasn't turned out that way. Sorry for the delays.

_**Part 3: 1919 PD**_

**7**

_Manticore System_

"This is a bit much, don't you think?" Anton Zilwicki asked, straightening the mess dress uniform that he had worn only a handful of times in his naval career. If Edward Janacek had been named First Lord, Anton almost certainly would have been placed on half-pay after the incidents on old Earth. If Thomas Caparelli had retained his job, he might very well have been promoted. As it was… Admiral Kral had him hidden behind a senior analyst's desk in the middle of NavInt's headquarters. He couldn't say his work was unimportant, but it wasn't especially hands-on.

"Nonsense. You know as well as I do what's going on behind all this song and dance. Probably better than I do, actually." Cathy Montaigne replied.

"Even with your seat in the Lords back?"

"Especially with. If I'm going to accomplish anything with my position in the Lords, then I have to focus most of my attention on what's happening there, and to a lesser extent in the Commons. And as you are well aware, quite a lot of consequence occurs outside the Star Kingdom's Parliament. Besides, you're hardly going to turn down a personal invitation from the Queen."

[break]

"I see BuPers hasn't caught on to you yet." Rear Admiral Henke told her flag captain.

"And why should I need to resort to anything under the table to achieve this posting? You must admit we did good work on our last assignment. I should think Admiral Low Dehli and Admiral Webster would be disinclined t' break such a successful partnership up." Oversteegen said, his exquisitely tailored uniform sporting new senior captain's insignia. "Though I'm sure if you were inclined t' ask, they would take back the battle cruiser squadron."

"I'm not so sure of that. Not after Elizabeth, Honor, Lady Hemphill, and Admiral Webster all personally congratulated me on my promotion and told me exactly why I was being stubborn."

"Far be it from me t' disagree with such august personages." Oversteegen said.

_HMS Agamemnon _was the lead ship of the RMN's pod battle cruiser class, and it and its seven class-mates were Henke's new command. And its initial assignment seemed to confirm her suspicion that Admiral Hemphill seemed to be throwing the trickiest jobs the RMN had at present for a junior flag officer at one Michelle Henke. That the jobs in question had come with first-line hardware and equally first-line crews (even if some of them were as … difficult… as her flag captain in one way or another) was something she tended to overlook when her thoughts ran that way.

[break]

"Thank you for seeing me." Admiral Hemphill told Honor Harrington. In truth, with most of her friends outside of her staff at Saganami Island assigned outside of the home system, the First Lord of Admiralty's invitations every month or so had become welcome, and even pleasurable. Even if the primary reason for them was to ensure Queen Elizabeth and Protector Benjamin were properly informed on some subjects that the Prime Minister felt impolitic to discuss with their sovereign or their allies, Hemphill's staff set an excellent table and the company was hardly dull. Of course, the secondary reason for the nearly monthly dinner invitations was because Honor Harrington was one of the best tacticians in the Royal Navy, and there were threats out there that Hemphill had to worry about, even if High Ridge didn't.

"I'm afraid Jim and I may have to pull you out of the ATC." Sonja continued.

"You've managed to prevent that so far." Honor said.

"I've managed to keep your political enemies from getting you put on half-pay. However, if all of my intelligence reports agree serious trouble could be coming and I don't give you a fleet command, three quarters of the population of the Star Kingdom would think I was a fool, and I'd be among them myself."

"Haven or the Andies?" She asked.

"I'm not sure those are separate concerns anymore. And though we've done our best to avoid stepping on too many toes out past Lynx, there are elements in the League who are not happy with us."

Honor arched an eyebrow.

"Admiral Kral has sent me some disturbing reports. You'll get summaries as a member of the Naval Affairs committee in the Lords tomorrow. But if those reports are accurate, and relations with both Haven and the Empire continue to break down, next year we'll be handing you the first flight of _San Martins_."

"I thought they were slated to be spread among Home Fleet, 6th Fleet, and 8th Fleet." Of the RMN's three largest concentrations of wallers, only Home Fleet had any tube SDs. When the _San Martins_ arrived, _Medusas_ would move to stations currently served by pre-pod wallers, and the older ships retired. And because the _San Martins_ would be the first ships to deploy the new Apollo targeting system and the defensive upgrades developed in tandem with it, they would make those formations far more formidable. Concentrating them in a single force, though, would suggest a need to use them offensively.

"They still are… for now. But I thought I should give you a heads-up of the alternative we're considering."

And seeing Lady Harrington's notion of contingency plans for war with Haven or the Empire or both couldn't hurt at all.

[break]

_Lynx System_

Commodore Eve Chandler had been prepared not to like Rear Admiral Augustus Khumalo. There was not any question, after all, of how well connected he was to the current government. He didn't have any major combat experience. And save for a grudging respect for Admiral Hemphill, Chandler, like most Naval officers without those connections, didn't have an especially high opinion of the High Ridge government. But he was an excellent administrator, and she could tell how hard he was working setting up Lynx Station.

The government might have shot down any plans for large-scale expansion of the Star Kingdom into the Talbott Cluster, but Lynx itself was another matter. Fortresses and sensor arrays were under construction both in the Lynx system and the terminus system a day and a half's journey away. And Khumalo had been very happy to see her and a squadron of brand-new _Arthur_-class light cruisers. He had a division of _Medusas_, a squadron of _Sphinxes_, and a carrier with its full LAC wing – Lynx was a member world of the Star Kingdom, after all. But ships of the wall were hardly the most useful things for the port visits and anti-piracy patrols Manticore needed to make to build relationships that would help the new terminus pay for itself. And Eve's squadron were easily the newest and most powerful ships below the wall that Khumalo had.

The _Arthur_ class was roughly the size of the _Star Knight-_class heavy cruisers that had been the RMN's first-line heavy cruiser until more than halfway through the war with Haven, but it was officially listed as a light cruiser. And like the _Hexapuma_-class heavy cruiser and the _Nike_-class battle cruisers under construction, the Arthur's primary armament was the Mark 16 dual-drive missile. The larger designs had been approved first, as the _Arthur_ required a radical offset missile tube design for its broadsides (an alternative proposal of stacking the missile tubes in the hammerheads having been dismissed as risking half the ship's broadside to a single hit), but an _Arthur_ was half the mass of a _Hexapuma_, so the _Arthurs_ had entered service first. The design was near the lower bound of what BuShips considered to be a viable hyper-capable warship in a galaxy where the Mark 16 or something like it was in the hands of Manticore's enemies, and perhaps its tonnage was too low. But it had been difficult enough for Admiral Hemphill to end production of new hyper-capable warships smaller than an _Arthur-_class ship; another fifty or a hundred thousand tons would never have made it past the Prime Minister. And even with the limitations keeping its mass at 'only' about 250,000 tons imposed, nothing Haven had short of a battle cruiser with heavy pods on tow had a chance against an _Arthur_.

[break]

Bernandus van Doort supposed he should be happy. The treaty between Manticore and the Rembrandt Union – the 'Trade' having dropped out as the four systems became a _de jure_ star nation instead of merely a _de facto_ one – almost certainly accomplished what had been his goal for most of his life. The Solarian League's Office of Frontier Security swept small polities with few friends and few resources along the League's borders into its loving arms. A four-system star nation with close ties to the Star Kingdom and a navy stronger than the nearest Frontier Fleet detachment – three squadrons of _Prince Consorts_ and one of _Star Knights_ might be surplus to the Star Kingdom, but they were a major upgrade for Rembrandt – was another matter entirely. It was no one else's fault that he'd hoped, with the discovery of the Lynx terminus, to do more.

"We should be able to keep OFS from moving in on the rest of the Cluster even without formally annexing them." Amandine Corvisart said.

"Probably. You'll set up anti-piracy patrols, build trade agreements, help the Union grow into a regional power, mediate disputes, and use your influence on Sol to discourage OFS from getting any more involved out here. But if they really push it, you'll let it go."

"There's far too much trouble brewing around the home system for us to court a war with the League. I don't think the SLN has any clue how badly we could hurt them, but going against two thirds of the human race seems like something we don't want to do unless we have to. If they push someone we've formally annexed like Lynx, or have a strong mutual defense treaty with like we now have with you, then we'll take that chance. But we'd rather not have to. I suspect what we are willing to do should be sufficient to discourage any OFS adventurism."

"Which still means it will take twenty or thirty years longer for the Cluster economies to modernize than it would have."

"But means they won't be outvoting good upstanding Manticorans, either." She understood the logic behind the government's position, and even agreed with it to a large extent. But that didn't mean it was without cost for the people out here. "It's probably for the best. I don't think any of the systems out here would have been truly happy with any annexation plan Descroix and her allies came up with. They'd accept almost anything to avoid OFS, but they wouldn't have liked it very much. And it's looking like there are some around the Cluster that would have objected very strongly to anything much beyond what we are doing."

**8**

_Erewhon_

"The Manties have brought quite an entourage to this show." Captain Luis Rozsack said.

"I'll say." Edie Habib told her commanding officer. "A brand new battle cruiser squadron with the queen's first cousin in command, the queen's brother on her cousin's staff, the Prime Minister's second cousin in command of the flagship, and her sister-in-law as the official envoy. In addition to the new royal yacht, which is of the same class as the BCs – albeit modified. One _Agamemnon_ could make short work of our entire flotilla, whether they'd admit that in Old Chicago or not. Still, it shouldn't have anything to do with us."

"Countess Fraser and the official permanent Manty diplomatic presence on Erewhon are not the sharpest styluses in the drawer, but ONI and the Queen's Own are another matter entirely. And it really wouldn't do for anyone outside our little conspiracy to figure out what we're up to."

"Even if they did, they might leave well enough alone. It's not like the League is any friend of theirs. And we've declined to take any official notice of certain events on Smoking Frog; they should owe us."

"I'd rather not risk it all the same. The current Manticoran government may be less inclined to making a stand on principle than Manticorans normally are, but I could easily see the Centrists or the House of Winton deciding they didn't owe us that much."

"We could distract at least some of them with the Komandorski tidbit."

"It wouldn't pull off all of them, and I was hoping to get more use out of it, but I haven't got any better ideas."

[break]

"I don't know why we're bothering with this." Victor Cachat told his companion. "The Manties' relationship with Erewhon is as solid as it's been since High Ridge took office, and what they're doing here is only going to make it more that way."

"Kevin thinks they're up to something." Ginny Usher said. And the director of the new Republic of Haven's federal police – who most definitely did not have any role investigating things outside of Haven – had remarkably good instincts about that sort of thing. Kevin Usher's wife was an amateur intelligence agent (among other things), but hardly an inept one despite the role she played.

"Obviously. Even if the Centrists were in power in Manticore, they wouldn't send this much firepower – both military and political – to the Stein funeral unless they were working on something else. I'm not quite cold-blooded enough to sabotage liberating Congo, though."

"Could you backtrack a few steps? I'm not clear on the part where a cynical band of Manticoran aristocrats takes any kind of risk on behalf of genetic slaves."

"So assume they're not doing that."

"Oh. Right."

"A year and a half ago, Erewhon's powers that be were very unhappy with their relationship with the Star Kingdom. Six months after that, the sale of several top of the line Manticoran warships to the Erewhon Navy is approved, including a squadron of pod superdreadnoughts and a LAC carrier. Jeremy X and most of his faction of the Audubon Ballroom disappear, as does W.E.B. du Havel. The latter reappears here, now. At the same time, a Manticoran battle cruiser squadron and three members of the royal family attend an event most of the current government of Manticore would be inclined to ignore. Do you have any other way to add that up?"

"Not when you connect the dots like that, no. As far as High Ridge is concerned, this is all about keeping Erewhon happy, and keeping the Manticoran Alliance's technical secrets out of the hands of the Sollies and, directly or indirectly, us. And there's nothing we can do about it."

_Bolthole System, Republic of Haven_

"I know you've been doing great work out here, Shannon. And our Andermani partners have been a lot more helpful than the Sollies ever were. So why are you so worried?" Tom Theisman asked, though he thought he knew. He wasn't getting much sleep either.

"It's more Linda's department than mine. We've designed and built our new navy to fight what Manticore used against us, but that was what they had then, not now. The first year or so after the cease-fire they were building what looked like either more of what they used in their final campaign or incremental improvements over them. But they're not now, and we don't have anything more than guesses as to what's different." Vice Admiral Forraker replied.

"250 kiloton 'light' cruisers with offset broadside missile tubes for some reason, and similarly oversized heavy cruisers. Pod battlecruisers. Our scouts at McGregor have seen a new LAC design there. And for all the fanfare they announced the construction plans with, there's something going on with the _San Martin_-class SDs that's keeping the project very dark and no one knows anything about why except that Admiral Hemphill is very involved with the project herself." Trenis said. "And I understand Trajan's people haven't done any better than NavInt there."

Theisman had brought the latest from civilian intelligence reports with him; he was well aware of the holes. Neither the Legistlaturalists nor the Committee had ever had much success discovering the details of Manticoran hardware before it was declassified or actually used against them. The only solace he had was that the Manticorans were probably just as uninformed about what was going on out here. But only probably; Jason Kral had been when of Pat Givens' senior subordinates, no matter who he was related to.

"We don't have any choice but to make plans based our best guesses. I understand you have a proposal if things do go south." He said.

"We have to get them to draw down the force at McGregor. There's no system in the Republic that can hold against what White Haven has there now. So what I suggest is …"

It was risky, Theisman thought. But it could work, which was better than anything he'd come up with at the Octagon. He hoped he wouldn't have to find out if it would.

_McGregor System_

"… among other side effects of the current political situation, Sonja has requested a review of our contingency plans for a number of scenarios. Three of which would involve your fleet right now. So we're updating our plans for Yale, Brussels, and Rangnarock and your comments were requested." Jim Webster's recording ended.

Hamish Alexander wasn't surprised. Yale was the code name for renewed general war with Haven. Brussels for war with Haven and the Andermani Empire at the same time. Which had been the worst scenario worth bothering to plan for until recently.

And Rangnarock had only graduated from a worst-case scenario to an actual war plan in the last few decades. Until it became clear the SLN was almost entirely ignoring the technological advancements during the war, the idea of surviving a war with the League, let alone winning one, seemed insane. Now, it was merely crazy. If the SLN remained oblivious until most of the Alliance's wall of battle were _San Martins_ or newer ... there were limits to how many horribly one-sided losses any navy could take, no matter how large. What he'd had in Buttercup against Havenite hardware had produced extremely one-sided battles. _San Martins_ against _Scientists_ would make that look like an even fight.

_Meyers System_

"Who do the Manties think they're fooling with this 'Rembrandt Union' front of theirs?" Commissioner Lorcan Verrochio said.

"They've been a _de facto_ star nation for a long time before Manticore had anything out here beyond the odd freighter." Valery Ottweiler reminded him.

"But until the fucking Manties decided to prop them up, we could have swept them up whenever we wanted. Those 'surplus' cruisers they 'sold' to Rembrandt outmass the entire sector Frontier Fleet detachment, even if it is all neobarb crap."

It wasn't worth arguing the point, Ottweiler thought. _Especially when his prejudices are leading him exactly in the right direction for our purposes._

"Still, if they're propping up Rembrandt instead of moving in on their own, they can't be expected to object if we move against them."

And anyone who believed that had obviously never met any Manticorans. Even the most short-sighted and isolationist wings of the present Manticoran government would respond to a direct attack on an ally. Especially if it was a star nation they had played a large role in creating. But until the Lynx terminus had been discovered, Manticorans were very rare in this part of the Verge. So it was possible that Verrochio was just uninformed. But it was more likely he was just an idiot, if a useful one.

"I understand Admiral Byng will have 3 battle cruiser squadrons in the area for an exercise in a few months." With luck, neither Byng nor the OFS governor nor anyone on their staff would remember that will three SLN battle cruiser squadrons might be up to handling four squadrons of surplus Many heavy cruisers, Manticore had three squadrons of the wall between the force at Lynx and the one at the terminus itself.

**9**

_Erewhon_

"I understand completely, Captain Zilwicki." Admiral Henke's staff intelligence officer said. "Obviously you'll need to go back to Manticore with _Duke of Cromarty_ rather than continuing on with the squadron."

Information that could lead to the arrest of one of the most notorious criminals on Manticore certainly needed to be sent home. And for this particular tidbit… Commodore Jessica Binder wasn't in Web du Havel's league as political scientist, but she did possess a doctorate in the subject. Checking the assumptions of one agent or another's "brilliant" field op proposal against the standard models was a useful check against encouraging anything crazy. But if the information Zilwicki had uncovered became public, she was fairly certain it would be very disruptive to the political situation at home. Which from her perspective, as a life-long Centrist, could only be a good thing.

_Congo_

"What the hell is that?" The Manpower tech asked no one in particular. What was on his plot didn't make the slightest bit of sense.

"Looks like 8 2-megaton ships, one 7-megaton, and two 4-megaton." His jaded counterpart said. "Hypering in within seconds of each other, and positioned so they could intercept just about any remotely plausible attempt to leave the system."

"And that's larger than any single group that's ever shown up here. And pulling more acceleration than any battle cruiser I know about is capable of. Which makes it Manticoran, and military. And the Royal Manticoran Navy isn't going to make a _friendly_ port visit here, you idiot."

"If you're the fucking genius, then explain that." The annoyed tech replied. The SD-sized ship had sprouted nearly a hundred smaller ships around it, moving to englobe the system with acceleration rates he would have called impossible if it wasn't on his plot.

His counterpart, though, had a hobbyist's interest in warship design. And the Havenite wars had been the most interesting thing to happen to that field in a century. "Hydra-class LAC carrier. Which did a number on Haven in the late stages of their war with Manticore. And now one of them is after us."

[break]

"Nothing is leaving this system without your say-so, ma'am." Captain Termaine told his admiral. The LACs from his carrier had made that all but impossible for any small, fast ship, at any rate. And anything more massive could be intercepted by one of the battle cruisers in time.

[break]

There had been no warning. A minute earlier, she had been composing a routine report for Mesa Pharmaceuticals senior management, which she had done every month for years. And then armored giants started falling from the sky and giving orders.

Some of the security forces had tried to resist, but they weren't equipped to fight Manticoran Marines in all-up powered armor. Scattered reports from Manpower's offices – and especially the slave breeding facilities – had suggested others even less capable of fighting back had tried there.

The officer in charge of rounding up her and her Mesan citizen co-workers, though, insisted that they were on the ground to ensure their safety.

[break]

_Two years earlier_

"If you want to avoid a bloodbath in this, you'll need to have a lot of boots on the ground, and fast. _Manticoran_ boots." Web du Havel had told Cathy Montaigne when she'd played intermediary between the High Ridge government and the professor.

"Admiral Hemphell and Admiral Webster made it clear to me that they understand that. If everything falls out how we hope, the long-term peacekeeping force here will be a combination of native and Erewhonese forces with only a token Manticoran element, but we understand that for the first part it will need to be us to get the necessary respect from the slave population and fear from the Mesans."

"Do they? Protecting slavemasters from rebellious slaves is not something Manticoran Marines signed up for."

"I suspect knowing that Manpower's employees will not be going anywhere they'll enjoy will be of some solace to them."

[break]

The orbital station had at least some warning. They'd received the panicked transmission from astro control when the Manticoran force had dropped out of hyper. To prevent an impromptu uprising, they had not broadcast anything to the surface. It had, after all, been quite clear that the Manticorans were not letting anyone leave the system. But with as much firepower as the Manticorans had brought with them, there wasn't any point in trying to resist. Whether they'd still think this was a good idea after the home office shaped the League's official response was another matter.

[break]

"And that, as they say, is that." Admiral Henke told Oversteegen.

She'd lost some Marines on the ground. And one LAC when a task force of the Mesan Navy had hypered in for a scheduled visit. It had taken only seconds for the LACs consorts to demonstrate why tangling with Manticoran LACs was unwise for anything below the wall, but if a missile did make it past their wedge, sidewalls, and counter-missiles then they were still LACs. Considering the scope of the operation, there were remarkable few Manticoran casualties. But none was a feat almost impossible to pull off.

"It shouldn't be long before we can turn the local government over to du Havel's people. And then it will be time t' return home until the next task Her Majesty has in mind for us."

The second of the two Manticoran fast Marine transport ships accompanying Henke's squadron had sailed to Congo empty. Unlike the rest of the Manticoran ships, though, it would be only passing through the home system. It had been decided to drop the 'free' residents of Congo not directly involved in the genetic slave trade off at Visigoth. As for those that were … Jeremy X had argued for leaving them to face trial on what seemed like it would be called Torch. But du Havel had agreed with Michelle and the mission planners that they would face trial on Manticore.

_Manticore_

"I don't know how this will play out, but I think this may be the break we've been looking for." Cathy Montaigne told Admiral Hemphill.

"It should be." Hemphill said. "But getting this to play out how we would prefer is going to take some time. And the rest of the galaxy will keep on moving despite whatever we do here on Manticore."

_Haven_

"From what you and Arnold are telling me about the state of our negotiations, I don't think we have any choice but to begin preliminary deployments for Linda's brainstorm." Thomas Theisman told Eloise Pritchart. "But it's going to make it a lot easier for something to go wrong."

"What else can we do? Arnold's taken to dropping hints about Bolthole to his cronies, both from what we've had to tell him and from his brother's post on the Naval Affairs Committee. And Descroix doesn't have the slightest intention of negotiating seriously." She replied.

[break]

Eighteen months, Haven's secretary of state reflected, could change quite a lot. The Andermani were committed, now. And from what Theisman had been legally obligated to tell the cabinet, quite a lot of technology had been transferred in both directions. The new warships both Haven and the Empire were completing now could match every capability the Manticorans had shown in that "Operation Buttercup", from multi-drive missiles to pod-laying super dreadnoughts to advanced compensators to FTL communications to a new generation of light attack craft and the carriers to go with them to electronics warfare capabilities. And he was convinced Theisman's fears of new Manty developments beyond their capabilities then where a chimera. They'd certainly deployed that capability far more broadly since then – the Graysons seemed near to bankrupting themselves in the process – but fighting Haven and the Andermani Empire without a decisive technological advantage was a war Manticore could not win.

So while he felt some hesitation before altering the President's latest diplomatic note, it wasn't much. Certainly not enough to stop him from doing it.

**Reference guide to new Manticoran ship classes in this universe**

_Black Rose_ – roughly equivalent to the Flight III/IV _Reliant_-class BC; explicitly does have extended-range missiles

_Gauntlet_ – roughly equivalent to the _Saganami-B_ class CA

_Hexapuma_ – roughly equivalent to the _Saganami-C_ class CA, though slightly larger and with a larger Marine complement

_Arthur_ – Mark 16-based CL class; similar in concept to a stretched _Roland_-class DD, but it uses a different missile tube layout

_San Martin_ – third-generation Manticoran SD(P) class. The original design was essentially the _Medusa-B_ proposal, but it was substantially reworked for improved defenses before the class was laid down.


End file.
